Trousers pressing and holding device.



PATENTED NOV. 1 1903.

J. T. DONALDSON. TROUSERS PRESSING AND HOLDING- DEVICE.

APPLIGATION FILED NOV". 10, 1902.

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NITED STATES PATENT Patented November 10, 1903 Price.

JOHN rnoNALnsoN, or LIBERTY, MISSOURI.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 743,837, dated November 10, 1903.

Application filed November 10,1902. Serial No. 130.627. (No model.)

1'0 aZ whom it minty concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN T. DONALDSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Liberty, in the county of Clay and State of Misand holding devices, and my object is to produce a device of this character of simple, strong, durable, and cheap construction which can be manipulated with ease and convenience by a single person and which is eficient and reliable'for the purpose intended. To this end the 'invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and combinations of parts, as hereinafter described and claimed, and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a device of the character mentioned which is constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line III III of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings in detail, 1 designates a board which slightly exceeds in length the trousers to be employed in conjunction therewith. Said board by preference tapers somewhat fromfthe upper to the lower end and at the latter point is provided with a forwardly-projecting ledge or flange 2 and contiguous to said flange and at its side edges with a pair of eyes or staples 3,-in which are pivotally secured, soas to operate in a plane parallel with ledge or flange 2, the eyebolts 4.

5 designates a cross-bar clamp to engage the lower ends of the trousers-legs and rest against the ledge or flange, the ends of said bar projecting beyond the sides of the board and provided at such points with open slots or notches 6 in order that bolts 4: may be swung around into said slots and also extend through registering slots formed in the wear-plates 7 secured to the outer faces of clamp-bar 5, Wing nuts 8 engaging the ends of the bolts and bear- Fig. a is an enlarged cross-secfl tion similar to Fig. 3 to more clearly disclose. the relation between the filling-strips and the ing against said wear-plates for the purpose of causing clamping-bar 5 to secure the lower ends of the trousers-legs against slippage, the trousers (lettered A) being first folded in the customary manner, with one leg upon the other and with both coincidently creased at their front and rear sides, and then placed upon board 1 with their lower ends against ledge or flange 2, as shown, and in order to get the required pressure on the creased portions of the trousers the clamping-bar 5 is grooved, as at 5, at its inner side to accommodate the increased thickness at the center of the legs produced by the coincidental seams.

The upper edge of the clamping-bar is provided with a groove 9 at its inner side to receive and hold reliably in place the lower edge of the press-board 10, said press-board for purposes of economy being made in two similar sections, secured together by metal or wood cleats 11, and in this connection it should be stated that board 1 may also be made in sections for the same reason. Pressboard 10, except in length, corresponds to the dimensions of board 1, and in order that the pressure may be applied upon the creaselines instead of upon the central seams filling-strips 12, of pasteboard or any other suitable material, are placed between the trou sers-legs at their creased margins, as shown clearly in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and in Figs. 3 and 4, so that when the press board 10 is clamped tightly in position in a manner hereinafter explained the trousers-legs are pressed tightly from opposite sides by the board 1 and press-board 10 against the interposed strips, and as a result the trousers are pressed and their creases moresharply defined For the purpose of securing the press-board in place it is equipped with two or more clamping mechanisms at each side of its longitudinal center. These clamping mechanisms are preferably in the form of bars 13, pivoted at their inner ends to plates 11 by means of screws 14, extending from the inner side of press-board 10 through said board and cleats 11 and into said bars. \Vorking in conjunction with these pivoted clamping members, which may or may not be wedge- ICO 15, the same being secured to and projecting forwardly from the side edges of board 1 and having their bridge bars converging downwardly by preference with respect to the outer face of the press-board, thereby constituting in conjunction with the latter wedgeshaped loops to receive the outer ends of bars 13, which being wedged tightly therein serve to clamp the trousers tightly between the press-board and board 1 and upon the fillin gstrips interposed between the trousers-legs to provide a solid pressing-surface at the inner sides of the creases. \Vhile in this condition the upper portion of the trousers is held flatly against board 1 by means of a clamping-bar 16, said clamping-bar being preferably connected by elastic straps to board 1, one of the straps 17 by preference being permanently secured to the bar, as by a screw 18, while the other, 19, is detachably connected to the board, as by the pin-and-ring connection 20, this connection permitting the operator to swing said bar 16 completely aside to facilitate the insertion or removal of the trousers. At the opposite side of board 1 is a similar bar 21, similarly connected in every respect to the board and preferably by the same pieces of elastic material. Near the bottom of board 1 and at the same side as clamp-bar 21 is a similar cla1np-bar 22, having a similar elastic connection with the board, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

hen it is desired to stretch, crease, and press a pair of trousers in this device, bar 16 is first swung aside and then after the wedge members are disengaged press-board 10 is removed. lVing-nuts 8 are then turned backward on bolts 4 to enable the operator after properly folding the trousers and placing them on board 1 to slip their lower ends between said board and the clamp-bar until arrested by ledge or flange 2, the filling-strips 12 being previously inserted between the legs, as explained. The wing-nuts are then screwed home, so as to clamp the lower ends of the trousers tightly in place and permit the operator to smooth out the trousers in an obvious manner. He next disposes the pressboard upon the trousers and holding the latter with one hand with the other pushes the lower end of the press-board into the groove 9 of clamp-bar 5. Everything being now ready, he grasps the trousers in line with one of the creased margins and stretches them in the desired degree and holding them thus stretched forces the pivoted members 13 tightly into the wedge members 15 successively, beginning preferably with the member nearest the bottom of the trousers. He then grasps and stretches the trousers in line with the other creased margin and secures such margin in its stretched condition by operating the coincidental clamping members, as above described, with reference to the companion clamping mechanisms. He now disposes bar 16 to hold the upper portion of the trousers flatly and neatly against the board and secures said bar in such position by the pin-and-ring connection. In this condition the trousers may remain for the desired period and as aresnlt are pressed and creased in their stretched condition.

Freshly ironed and creased trousers may be worn constantly day after day and kept in crease and nicely pressed by simply placing them in this device over night. With. trousers that have been sprung at the knees and thereby lost their crease it will require a longer period for the device to restore them to proper shape. WVith such trousers it will be preferable to secure them in the device andlet them remain for several days; but where they must be worn day after day they can still be restored to proper shape in the course of a few days if they are properly stretched and secured in the device every night.

After the device has been utiliied to restore to proper shape a pair of trousers which the owner does not care to wear immediately, but desires to leave the device free to receive at night the trousers worn during the day, he takes such reshaped trousers and secures them neatly against the back of board 1 by means of the clamp-bars 21 22, where they may remain for an indefinite period of time. If desired, several extra pair of trousers may be secured at the back of the board.

The back of board 1, after bars 21 22 are disposed in inoperative positions, forms a convenient ironing-board, upon which the garments may be ironed \Vhile the description has dealt entirely with the stretching, pressing, and creasing of a single pair of trousers at a time, it is obvious that with careful manipulation two or more pair of trousers might be stretched, pressed, and creased simultaneously with the device, and while the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described it is obvious that changes may be resorted to without departing from the principle and scope or sacrificing any of the advantages of the same.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board having a forwardly-proj ecting ledge or flange against which the lower ends of the trousers-legs may bear, a clampbar upon said ledge or flange to clamp the lower ends of the trousers against the board, a press board to press the trousers against the board for about their entire length above said clamp-bar, and a clamping mechanism to clamp the press-board upon the trousers.

2. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board having a forwardly-projecting ledge or flange against which the lower ends of the trousers-legs may bear, a clampbar upon said ledge or flange to clamp the lower ends of the trousers against the board, and provided with a groove, a press-board to clamp the trousers against the first-named board, and at its lowerend engage said groove,

and means to cause the press-board to clamp the trousers against the first-named board.

3. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board, a clamp-bar across the lower end of the board to press the lower ends of the trousers against said board, and provided with a groove; a press-board having its lower end engaging said groove, and means to cause said press-board to clamp the trousers tightly against the first-named board.

a. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board, a clamp-bar across the lower end of the board, to press the lower ends of the trousers against said board, and provided with a groove, apress-board having its lower end engaging said groove and adapted to press the trousers toward the first-named board, filling-strips between the creased margins of the trousers, and means to clamp the trousers against the first-na med board.

5. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board, a clamp-bar against the lower end of the same and adapted to press the corresponding end of the trousers against said board, a press-board to press the trousers against the first-named board, filling-strips between the board and the press'board and also adaptedto be placed between the creased margins of the trousers-legs, and means to cause the press board to clamp the trousers tightly against the first-named board.

6. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board, a clamp-bar against the lower end of the same, and adapted to press the corresponding end of the trousers against said board, a press-board to press the trousers against the first-named board, filling strips between the board and press-board and also adapted to be placed between the creased margins of the trousers-legs, and clamping mechanism, comprising loops secured to the first-named board and converging with respect to the front face of the press-board, and pivoted bars mounted on the press-board and adapted forwedge-like engagement with said loops.

7. A trousers pressing and holding device, comprising a board, bolts hinged thereto and projecting forwardly, a cross bar having open slots or notches engaged by said bolts, and a groove in its upper side, wing-nuts engaging said bolts,-a press-board having its lower end engaging said groove, and means for causing the press-board to clamp the trousers against the first-named board.

8. The combination with a device of the character described, of a cross-bar at the rear side and near each end of said device; said cross-bars having an elastic connection with said device. 7

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN T. DONALDSON.

- Witnesses:

JoHN B. GARTH, CLAUDE HAnDwIoKE. 

